Saturday, 6 October 2012

Thames Mudlarking: A Day's Finds.

Late last night a clipboard of google tabs were
open as husband and I planned our Friday date. Our day had to be planned with
military precision, as low tide was later than usual and we had to be back at
3:30 to welcome our youngest home from school.

I was hankering after a mudlark- which has
become my antidote to the slavery of work. Failed to ensnare husband in this
part of the plan. He was quite emphatic, pointing out he wants to make pottery
not pick up old pieces.

Bounced down the road excited about our day. As
the bus jerked its way over tarmac darkened with wet, noticed
almost everyone was dressed in something black. Loose low grey clouds were moving
purposefully in the shots of sky framed by London architecture. Funny time of
year this – feels too warm and green leaved to be Autumn, but the slanted
light, evenings drawing in and greying weather all say otherwise. Autumn is the
first season which has made itself present on the foreshore.

I was the first down there today. The tide was
going out so fast it threw up small waves. I took some photos of my first finds in situ
for Paige from Florida, who has been wondering...

Mudlarking Finds In Situ

Couldn’t quite settle into the rhythm of it
today, probably because I only had an hour. Surprised to see quite a few people
down there today. Nothing stands out as find of the day, but some satisfying
pieces none the less.

First find was this chucky stoneware piece with
relief moulding of vine leaves and grapes clutching the top, I suspect from mid 19th Century.

Mudlarking Find: White Stoneware with Vines

Pleased with this attractive and unusual piece
of delft, with similar dentric patterns to
mocha ware.

Mudlarking Find: Delftware

Surprised to come across a bottle hundreds of
years old, but with cork still intact. Now that I’ve clocked the mother of pearl very aware of its abundance in one foreshore section, the reflected light
kept morse coding me. Found an incredible patch at low tide, just chocker with
bits of crockery, mainly plain white, but intersperse with tiny, wafer thin pieces
of porcelain, my favourite polychrome piece with the tiny house, in the centre below.

Mudlarking Find: bottle with cork

Mudlarking Finds: Porcelain Shards

I clearly picked up rather a lot in an hour, more of the same really clay pipes, glass bottle necks, handles, strainer, quite few 'browns' including slipware, stoneware and what I suspect are very old tiles. The blues are westerwald, delft, transferware, spongeware, porcelain....

Mudlarking Finds: Pottery shards, glass and clay pipes

I had 10 minutes to get to the Whitechapel art
gallery to meet husband. I do love this
gallery. I like the fact you literally swing out of the tube and round again
into its doorway, its modern interior and collection of small galleries poked
into all corners of this historic building. All the artists were new to me. Matt
Stokes double viewing video ‘Give to me the life I love’ was inspired, a
brilliant if uneasy capturing of Bengali London stories, poetry, cash and
carry, racism, music & protection rackets. An unexpected highlight for me. The other was Italian
artist Giuseppe Penone’s Spazio di Luce (space of light), a larch tree cast in
bronze, but not in a straight forward way, completely beautiful, confusing,
calming & wonderous.

It was all just up husband’s street as I’d
suspected, with his preference for sculpture and left field. His favourite was
Maurizio Cattelan’s industrial bag of rubble from Milan’s Contemporary Art
Pavilion bombed by the Mafia. Can’t finish without a mention of the squirrel’s
suicide, which I want to say was funny but somehow it wasn’t, making the human
condition seem even more sorrowful.

The final part of the plan was to make our way
along Whitechapel Road to Fieldgate (therein must lie a story) to Tayyabbs
which serves the best tarka dhal I’ve ever tasted, which my canny sister Laura introduced to me this year. It has such a vibrant and interesting
mix of people, a real fisheye into this part of London. We concluded that going
out for lunch is better than evening dining. Somehow it seems more extravagant,
indulgent, spontaneous and you tend not to over order, avoiding all that that
entails. Very sleepy we were rocked into
a stupor on the train back. Tried to preserve that state as I walked home, at 2pm we returned earlier than expected so I drifted off to sleep, despite our eldest son’s rap, for a luxury two hour
nap.

1 comment:

Thank you thank you!! These photos are PERFECT!! My heart actually started beating faster when I saw them...I can't imagine how I would react to actually seeing such treasure in REAL LIFE!!! As always, I love seeing your posts (you are such a visual writer!) So thank you for sharing. :) Paige from Florida